Larry Dreiling is a senior field editor from Hays, Kan. He has been with the Journal since 1989. He can be reached by phone at 785-628-1117, or by e-mail at ldreiling@aol.com.
The official noted that 3 million to 4 million additional people could be serviced with the change in the emergency food aid and 800,000 more families with the change in how development food aid is administered. Where the turf battles heat up is over the Food for Progress program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service. “As you know, Title II of Public Law 480 provides for the donation of U.S. agricultural commodities by the U.S. government to meet ...
The Senate Agriculture Committee has approved its version of a five-year farm bill that would cut spending while also creating new subsidies for farmers. The Senate bill calls for a total of roughly $2.4 billion a year in cuts. The new Adverse Market Payment program under the new Senate farm bill, Roberts said, not only will add target prices to Southern crops, but to corn, soybean, wheat and sorghum crops as well. [Read More]
The first automobile road across the United States, the Lincoln Highway was also the first national memorial to President Abraham Lincoln, predating the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., by nearly a decade. Some were major routes like the Lincoln Highway, the Dixie Highway, and the Old Spanish Trail. The Lincoln Highway Visitor Center displays Lincoln Highway memorabilia. [Read More]
The Central Platte River Valley—roughly a 90-mile stretch from Lexington to Chapman—is an important resting area for millions of ducks, geese, sandhill cranes, and other species during their annual migrations. Species using the Central Flyway include, in addition to sandhill cranes, trumpeter swans, tundra swans, Canadian geese, greater white-fronted geese, and canvasback ducks. Rowe Sanctuary and the Crane Trust are the best places for visitors to view the cranes while they are on the ... [Read More]
The 56th annual Kansas hard red winter wheat evaluation tour has estimated that the state could harvest 313 million bushels, down from last year’s estimate of 402.8 million bushels and the U.S. Department of Agriculture actual total of 382.2 million bushels. From Oklahoma, Mike Schulte, executive director of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission, said his state’s current wheat crop estimate 25.45 bushels per acre with an estimated production of 85.583 million bushels, a far cry from last’s year 154.8... [Read More]
March's hiring index slipped to 57.5 from March's 59.4. The farmland-price index for April fell to 70.8 from 74.1 in March. The April farmland and ranchland price index decreased to 58.0 from 61.8 in March. [Read More]
The development of an effective immigration bill is just one part of a three-pronged effort for the Barack Obama administration toward solving what Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack called “the challenge of migration. Speaking at a luncheon before the North American Agricultural Journalists annual meeting recently in Washington, D.C., Vilsack told of a recent meeting he had with ag leaders in North Carolina concerned about ag production who said to him, “We’re either going to import ... [Read More]
A report issued by the 25x’25 Alliance offers recommendations that will enable the U.S. agriculture and forestry sectors to meet the challenges posed by increasingly variable and unpredictable weather. “Agriculture and Forestry in a Changing Climate: Adaptation Recommendations” was compiled by the 25x’25 Adaptation Work Group, a collaboration of agriculture, forestry, business, academic, conservation and government leaders who have spent more than 18 months exploring the impacts of a changing... [Read More]
The monthly Mid-America Business Conditions Index, a leading economic indicator for a nine-state region, bounced higher for the month, according to a Creighton University researcher. Looking ahead six months, economic optimism, as captured by the March business confidence index, expanded to 58.2 from February’s weaker 50.6. The Business Conditions Index, from a survey of supply managers, climbed to 53.4 from 48.7 in February. [Read More]
Policymakers aim to install such workers in place of the half or more of the nation’s farm labor workforce estimated to be in the country illegally. At least 50 percent and as much as 70 or 80 percent of the nation’s farm workers arrived illegally, according to labor and industry estimates. There is a 10-month visa program for farm workers, the H2A visa, but growers argue it’s so hard to use that once they’ve completed the paperwork whatever crop they needed picked may well have withered. [Read More]
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